Government Computer News August 31, 2018 Researchers at George Washington University have developed a new CyberWar Map that offers an initial screen that displays what looks like the missile-tracking screens in the movie War Games. The map serves as a visual index and access point to the National Security Archives’ extensive collection of Cyber Vault documents. The CyberWar Map is a living research aid: documents and nodes will be added on a regular basis… read more.
Dual-layer solar cell sets record for efficiently generating power
Nanowerk August 31, 2018 The combination of hybrid perovskite and Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) has the potential for realizing high-efficiency thin-film tandem solar cells because of the complementary tunable bandgaps and excellent photovoltaic properties of these materials. Researchers in Japan used nanoscale interface engineering of the CIGS surface and a heavily doped poly[bis(4-phenyl)(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)amine] (PTAA) hole transport layer between the subcells that preserves open-circuit voltage and enhances both the fill factor and short-circuit current. The solar cell achieved a 22.43% efficiency, and unencapsulated devices under ambient conditions maintained 88% of their initial efficiency after 500 hours of aging under continuous 1-sun illumination… read […]
Engineered sand zaps storm water pollutants
Science Daily August 30, 2018 To provide a passive, low-cost means of oxidizing substituted phenols, aromatic amines, and other electron-rich organic compounds during infiltration of contaminated waters, an international team of researchers (USA – UC Berkeley, the Netherlands) coated sand with manganese oxide using a new approach involving the room-temperature oxidation of Mn2+ with permanganate. The coated sand effectively oxidized bisphenol A under typical infiltration conditions and sustained reactivity longer than previously described geomedia. The results suggest that it is possible to regenerate the oxidative capacity of manganese oxide-coated sands without excavating stormwater infiltration systems and manganese oxide geomedia may […]
Injection wells can induce earthquakes miles away from the well
Science Daily August 30, 2018 Researchers at UC Santa Cruz analyzed spatial seismicity decay in a global dataset of 18 induced cases with clear association between isolated wells and earthquakes. They found two populations. The first is characterized by near-well seismicity density plateaus and abrupt decay, dominated by square-root space-time migration and pressure diffusion. Injection at these sites occurs within the crystalline basement. The second population exhibits larger spatial footprints and magnitudes, steady spatial decay over more than 10 kilometers, potentially caused by poroelastic effects. Far-reaching spatial effects during injection may increase event magnitudes and seismic hazard beyond expectations based […]
The New Science of Seeing Around Corners
Quanta Magazine August 30, 2018 Researchers at MIT showed that the changing light on the wall of a room, filmed with nothing fancier than an iPhone, can be processed to reveal the scene outside the window. In 2014 a man said “Mary had a little lamb…” an empty chip bag. They filmed the motion of the chip bag and reconstructed audio. DARPA’s REVEAL program (Revolutionary Enhancement of Visibility by Exploiting Active Light-fields) was partly inspired by these findings. REVEAL has been making non-line-of-sight imaging ever more powerful and practical… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE 1 , TECHNICAL ARTICLE 2
Physicists hack the human visual system to create “ghost images”
MIT Technology Review August 31, 2018 Computational ghost imaging technique relies on clever algorithms to crunch the seemingly random data that a single pixel appears to gather. Researchers in the UK have demonstrated that the computational integration can be performed directly with the human eye. They used this human ghost imaging technique to evaluate the temporal response of the eye and establish the image persistence time to be around 20 ms followed by a further 20 ms exponential decay. These persistence times agree with previous studies but can now potentially be extended to include a more precise characterisation of visual […]
The potential harbingers of new physics persist in LHC data
Phys.org August 31, 2018 Mesons are unstable systems and quickly disintegrate in ways that are described as channels of decay. One of these anomalies was observed by LHC scientists in the decay channel of meson B to another meson (K*; this meson contains a strange quark instead of a beauty quark) and a muon-antimuon pair. The origin of the observed anomalies remains unknown. An international team of researchers (Germany, Switzerland, Poland, USA – MIT) propose that an unknown elementary particle outside the Standard Model may be responsible for their existence… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Russian scientists have increased the Internet speed up to one and a half times
Eurekalert August 31, 2018 Researchers at the University of Missouri have developed an algorithm based on a special routing method which provides quick access to the most powerful large data processing centers in the world. The quality and speed of data transmission is achieved due to the superior constrained shortest path finder algorithm made by the scientists. Thus, the data transmission speed can be increased up to 50%. This is relevant for solving problems that require high-precision calculations both in the field of fundamental science and for the implementation of applied projects. According to the scientists, to use this algorithm, […]
Scientists predict superelastic properties in a group of iron-based superconductors
Science Daily August 30, 2018 By performing pressure simulations within density functional theory for the family of iron-based superconductors an international team of researchers (Germany, USA – Iowa State University) predicts that in these systems the appearance of two consecutive half-collapsed tetragonal transitions at pressures Pc1and Pc2. They identify clear trends of critical pressures and discuss the relevance of the collapsed phases in connection to magnetism and superconductivity. Not only does this study have implications for properties of magnetism and superconductivity, it may have much wider application in room-temperature elasticity… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Top 10 Science and Technology Inventions for the Week of August 31, 2018
01. Enzyme can convert any blood into universally donated type O 02. Nanobot pumps destroy nerve agents 03. Quantum bugs, meet your new swatter 04. D-Wave demonstrates first large-scale quantum simulation of topological state of matter 05. Future information technologies: Nanoscale heat transport under the microscope 06. These lithium-ion batteries can’t catch fire because they harden on impact 07. Research team finds evidence of matter-matter coupling 08. Chemists make breakthrough on road to creating a rechargeable lithium-oxygen battery 09. Breaking down band structures 10. Bowtie-funnel combo best for conducting light; team found answer in simple equation And others… Big data and technology […]